EVERYDAY STUFF

 

1986... towards the end of my stay at the Curriculum Development Unit. I was planning out how to complete a series of five booklets under the Let's Build Zimbabwe brand. Targeted at lower secondary school, a syllabus called ZJC at the time. (Zimbabwe Junior Certificate)

Almost 3 years into my time at CDU, I had developed quite a clear vision of how to structure these booklets. Packaging them up so that teachers can easily pick and choose parts that they find useful. Suggesting a well organised scheme for how to work through the syllabus in a logical sequence while providing a good balance of activity types, week by week.

These were rough sketches for the title pages of module D, intended for the fourth term of a five term course. (term six being reserved for catching up, revision and exams) I wanted to move away from just using dry technical illustrations and make the link to real life situations with perspective sketches.

 

 

Important to make music a regular habit if I am to regain the fluency of my heyday. This is a song I've approached in different ways and not even attempted for probably 10 years now.

Laying down the first track I didn't know what song I was going to do, if any. Just working on my old tricks. 12 bar in G, standard tuning. Trying to stay in sync with a drum loop. Then I decided to overlay a second guitar with a slightly different tone. Not sure if that comes across really (the tone)

Finally I decided to add some vocals and at that point it became this old standard. BB King is probably the best known version. Maybe he wrote it? Added a few handclaps and grunts to spice up the rhythm part.

It's nothing special, but I'm putting in the effort.

PS the images are all from my visit to Porto in 2016. A wonderful city.

 

 

 I discovered City Walk during Xmas week. It's just a stone's throw from the apartment we rented for our family Christmas meetup. It was a fun place to walk around during the day. Nice outdoor feel, makes a refreshing change from all the indoor malls.

We had a couple of nice meals there, not cheap, but no complaints given the quality of the food, presentation and atmosphere. I decided to go back with a friend once I was recovered enough from my operation. So that's what we did last weekend.

 

Totally different vibe at night. Equally positive. Lots of excitement in the lights and screens. Tables outside on the pavement. Very nice piece of salmon. I'm left wondering why I didn't do this more often. Fair enough, I don't have the energy that I used to have. I tire easily. But maybe I can find a better balance.